Wohlever leads SWO to playoff-opening win

Tuesday

Feb 26, 2013 at 12:01 AM

In coming up with a career high in points and rebounds to lead Southwest past Red Springs 77-65 Monday night in the opening round of the NCHSAA 1-A boys’ basketball playoffs, senior Corey Wohlever was just doing what coach Tommy Barnes asked him to do.

Rick Scoppe-Sports Editor/The Daily News

In coming up with a career high in points and rebounds to lead Southwest past Red Springs 77-65 Monday night in the opening round of the NCHSAA 1-A boys’ basketball playoffs, senior Corey Wohlever was just doing what coach Tommy Barnes asked him to do.

“Coach, he told me to be a big man. So I be a big man,” said the 6-foot-7 1/2 Wohlever, who scored 27 points and pulled down 20 rebounds. “I’m the only senior on the team. So I was trying to lead the team to victory. That’s what we did tonight.”

Led by Wohlever, the taller Stallions dominated the boards 49-29, which also contributed to a 22-11 advantage in second-chance points, although the victory wasn’t easy against a team that is far better than its final 6-17 record would indicate.

“That was a pretty good basketball team,” Barnes said. “Their record is kind of deceiving, which I didn’t take them lightly no way because at this point you never do. I thought our guys played well. … Good way to start the first playoff game.”

Fifth-seeded Southwest (18-5) will travel to East Columbus (12-12) on Wednesday for a second-round game. East Columbus, seeded fourth out of the Three Rivers Conference, beat Lakewood 64-49 Monday night.

Along with Wohlever’s 27 points, J’Veon Walker was also in double figures for the Stallions with 18 points while Jeffrey Williams and Jonathan Williams each had 9 points. Red Springs had three players in double figures, led by Jamison Baker with 19.

“They just outrebounded us,” Red Springs coach Glenn Patterson said. “They had a lot of second and third opportunities at the basket. Those are things we talked about at halftime, trying to box out. I told them we’re not as big as those guys so let’s put a body on them when the ball goes up.

“We went out and did that for a few possessions, but then we stopped. Any time you’ve got a team that’s that big and capitalizing on opportunities around the basket and you don’t do your job of boxing out, the end result is going to be a loss.”

The 12th-seeded Red Devils led 12-11 at the end of the first quarter on a 3-pointer by Jaqwan McLaurin with 12 seconds left and pushed the lead to 16-13 before the Stallions went on an 11-0 run to go up 24-16 with 3:32 left in the opening half behind three buckets, two on follow shots, by Wohlever.

Southwest led 32-24 at intermission.

The Stallions seemed to take control with a 10-4 start to open the second half on a 3-pointer by Jonathan Williams 14 seconds into third quarter and a three-point play by Walker for a 42-28 lead with 5:38 left.

But the Red Devils refused to go quietly, pulling within eight twice in the next few minutes before Southwest answered. Then with 5:07 left in the game Red Springs cut the lead to 59-52 on a bucket by Quinn Lowery and then forced Southwest into two straight turnovers.

But the Red Devils came up empty on their next two trips down court, and Jonathan Williams drove down the lane to push the lead back to 61-52 with 4:26 left. Red Springs cut it to seven three more times, but Southwest scored six straight points on follow shots by Jeffrey Williams and Wohlever sandwiched around two foul shots by Walker to all but clinch the win.

In losing to East Carteret 62-45 Friday night in the Coastal Plains 1-A Conference tournament final, Barnes wasn’t pleased with his team’s half-court offense, a problem he was determined to fix — starting with his team’s playoff opener.

The fix included feeding Wohlever and 6-6 Malique Judd down low over and over.

“Since the other night I’m bound and determined for us to set up and start some running some half court (offense),” Barnes said. “You go a big man inside. We’re going to go to him because we can get it to him and then everything else is going to revolve around that.”

Wohlever’s good with that, especially when it produces a win.

“Me and Malique, twin towers, we went down low and we got some buckets and layups and transition stuff. It was kind of easy for us, I guess,” Wohlever said. “But at the end of the day it’s called a win…, and you keep moving on. But we’ve got to keep playing good.”